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A review by romanticauroras
They Hate Each Other by Amanda Woody
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
i picked this book up because i read amanda woody's other book, exes & foes, and i enjoyed it in a "this will shut off my brain for a few hours" kind of way.
this book had the potential to be something i would thoroughly love. it had all the ingredients of my favorite tropes such as hate-to-love, fake dating, and a soft romance that delved into darker topics. however, i didn't enjoy it as much as i hoped. because for a fake dating ploy to be convincing, it had to have a solid foundation for why the characters are actually doing that in the first place. while the whole reason that they got roped into the fake dating scheme could've been played up for laughs, it just fell a little... flat. the reason felt shallow. the comments made by the side characters on the two guys' love lives (sex lives, really) honestly felt a little weird and off-putting. the way that the characters insisted they had sex was just a bit intrusive. like, i get that the characters are meant to be high school kids. but it could've come off a bit better if the characters actually had depth to them. but the whole time their friend group was on the page felt like i was just reading caricatures of them. which threw off the whole reading experience.
the whole "falling for your enemy" could have been executed really well... if there had been more time to establish deeper reasons for why the characters disliked each other. if jonah didn't like dylan because he seemed well-off and didn't have any worries while jonah scraped by just to provide for his sisters, then there should've been more to it than just a conversation between the characters saying that they shouldn't judge each other without knowing what they were going through. the book could've also touched on their differences more such as dylan being Spanish and jonah being white that could've added another layer to their dislike. but it just seemed to boil down to "i don't like him 'cause he's rich and i don't like him 'cause he's loud and everyone adores him."
(all hail the underdogs by e.l. massey had the same concept minus the fake dating scheme and it was executed so much better.)
i also kind of didn't like the thing with jonah's manager. it was barely resolved and when it was, it happened off-screen. i just felt like that could've been taken out of the book and it would've resolved just fine.
what i did enjoy about this book was how it touched on more serious topics and how it really showed how much these characters care about each other while dealing with their own struggles. they did support each other in a meaningful way and i particularly liked how dylan noticed that jonah didn't eat lunch to save money so he started giving sweets and snacks just to give him something to eat. i liked jonah's relationships with his sisters and i liked his aunt but i wish it could've touched on more about jonah's mom and her relationship with the aunt so it felt like the emotional tension had a better pay off. and that's honestly all i could say that i enjoyed.
this book had the potential to be something i would thoroughly love. it had all the ingredients of my favorite tropes such as hate-to-love, fake dating, and a soft romance that delved into darker topics. however, i didn't enjoy it as much as i hoped. because for a fake dating ploy to be convincing, it had to have a solid foundation for why the characters are actually doing that in the first place. while the whole reason that they got roped into the fake dating scheme could've been played up for laughs, it just fell a little... flat. the reason felt shallow. the comments made by the side characters on the two guys' love lives (sex lives, really) honestly felt a little weird and off-putting. the way that the characters insisted they had sex was just a bit intrusive. like, i get that the characters are meant to be high school kids. but it could've come off a bit better if the characters actually had depth to them. but the whole time their friend group was on the page felt like i was just reading caricatures of them. which threw off the whole reading experience.
the whole "falling for your enemy" could have been executed really well... if there had been more time to establish deeper reasons for why the characters disliked each other. if jonah didn't like dylan because he seemed well-off and didn't have any worries while jonah scraped by just to provide for his sisters, then there should've been more to it than just a conversation between the characters saying that they shouldn't judge each other without knowing what they were going through. the book could've also touched on their differences more such as dylan being Spanish and jonah being white that could've added another layer to their dislike. but it just seemed to boil down to "i don't like him 'cause he's rich and i don't like him 'cause he's loud and everyone adores him."
(all hail the underdogs by e.l. massey had the same concept minus the fake dating scheme and it was executed so much better.)
i also kind of didn't like the thing with jonah's manager. it was barely resolved and when it was, it happened off-screen. i just felt like that could've been taken out of the book and it would've resolved just fine.
what i did enjoy about this book was how it touched on more serious topics and how it really showed how much these characters care about each other while dealing with their own struggles. they did support each other in a meaningful way and i particularly liked how dylan noticed that jonah didn't eat lunch to save money so he started giving sweets and snacks just to give him something to eat. i liked jonah's relationships with his sisters and i liked his aunt but i wish it could've touched on more about jonah's mom and her relationship with the aunt so it felt like the emotional tension had a better pay off. and that's honestly all i could say that i enjoyed.